Rex Smith: Dangerous, like Papa was

There’s a time in about every guy’s life when he likes to feel a bit dangerous. I mean, Ernest Hemingway dangerous, not Jeffrey Dahmer dangerous.

But I’ve never thought cops needed to be warned about me or my ilk. Until, that is, I read a report issued last week to London’s Metropolitan Police about how those who keep the peace ought to beware interactions with those who keep the public informed.

Journalists, it seemed to say, pose a threat to cops, such that officers need to be instructed on even basic behavior in the presence of reporters.

Don’t get too drunk, this new report says. Don’t succumb to flirting. And if a reporter offers a bribe, don’t take it.

Well, now, you may think, doesn’t that just take all the fun out of reporting?

Could be, except for this: That’s not how we get stories.

Maybe it’s a cultural difference between America and the Mother Country. The report is, after all, an outgrowth of a scandal unimaginable on this shore: reporters for at least one newspaper were routinely hacking the phones of cops, politicians, royals and others to get juicy stories, and offering cash for scoops. It was an open secret in the tabloid press.

If anything like that were going on here, we all would know about it by now. Enough preliminary investigation was done into U.S. journalistic practices, with hopes for scandal held high by politicians who like to blame the media for the ills of society that they haven’t managed to address. But it seems that what went on in Britain stayed in Britain.

Still, the report on “The Ethical Issues Arising From The Relationship Between Police and The Media” offers an opportunity to think about how reporting actually is done, compared to what people seem to imagine.

First, about alcohol. Here’s what the report says: “Late-night carousing, long sessions, yet another bottle of wine at lunch — these are all long-standing media tactics to get you to spill the beans. Avoid.”

Wait: “Another” bottle of wine with lunch? Who has the time or money for one? Sure, a reporter and a cop or some other official source may get together over a beer, or even two, occasionally, but lunch for most reporters is a sandwich between assignments.

As to that “late-night carousing,” drunken driving enforcement must be more lax across the drink than it is here. Carousing is a risk to employment in U.S. journalism.

Bribes are also a strange notion in a media environment as economically strapped as ours. TV networks and celebrity magazines in recent years have started to offer cash for photos (though never to cops, yet). But in a newspaper career that began in the 1970s, I’ve not once heard of a journalist offering anybody money for a story.

Now, about flirting and sex. “Often interlinked with alcohol,” the British report says, in what I can only characterize as a revelation. “Designed to get you to drop your defences and say far more than you intended.”

Here, we Americans must be far behind our British brethren. When I was young and single, it never occurred to me to use sex as a reporting tool. It rather struck me as an end in itself, to be perfectly honest. It’s hard to imagine my career had I been as creative as the folks covering the bobbies in Britain must be.

Let me describe for you what real reporting looks like, because it’s not a process awash in alcohol, money and sex. It’s about asking good questions in the right places and listening to the answers.

Good reporters are smart and curious, certainly, but they are above all relentless. I’ll take a single reporter with energy over a trio of laid-back intellectuals any day.

They ask questions of everybody. They’re a bit pushy and often in a hurry. They’ll bypass spokesmen and prowl for information elsewhere whenever they can, because the official version has usually gone through channels where important details have been dropped or misunderstood. So it’s not rare for a good beat reporter to know more than the person he or she is covering.

Sure, a reporter may be a bit ingratiating as he or she works on a story. Honey gathers more flies, you know. But it’s as likely that a source is using some sweet tactic to try to curry favor with a journalist as vice versa. Experience suggests that I’m justified in trusting in the integrity of the people who work at the newspaper, and in hoping to be pleasantly surprised when I find it elsewhere.

So, no, contrary to that British report, I don’t think police or anybody else need warnings about dealing with folks like me. Unless, of course, they’re doing something they don’t want anybody else to know about. Then, yes, watch out for guys in my line of work. It’s like Hemingway said: “I have learned a great deal from listening carefully.”

Rex Smith

6 Responses

Nice idealistic view of the profession. The reality is that journalists want the “scoop” and will invent a story where one doesn’t exist if necessary to jump-start their careers. Police and people who work in government are wary of speaking to reporters because of the innumerable times their words are taken out of context, and their wariness is justified. This is why public relations is a thriving field and every organization has a press secretary.

On a different note, as Editor-In-Chief, Rex, can you do something to collar and control the rabid dogs on the Crime Confidential blog? Commenters routinely and deliberately flout the rules on other blogs against personal insults, bad language, threats and attacks. It is the most toxic, negative, hate-filled blog in your paper and it does not reflect well on your product.

Mickey, I appreciate your bringing to my attention your concern about the Crime Confidential blog. Sometimes when commenting is heavy, the moderators of various blogs let too much get posted. Some commenters hide behind the anonymity of blogs to say stuff they would never own up to in person. That strikes me as cowardice.
But as you may expect, I don’t agree with your assessment that journalists “will invent a story… to jump-start their careers.” The growth of publicity agents is more about public figures wanting to control their message by confounding the truth-telling function of the responsible press than it is about protecting those people from reporters.
Rex

Mr. Smith ..I am inclined to agree ..in part with Mickey’s comment…I feel that the moderator’s of the Cap Con Blog too need a refresher course in the meaning of “journalism”…I disagree with Mickey’s “jump-start” theory but do..as a regular Cap Con Blogger.. see a pattern of “stirring the pot” on an “issue” and then letting said issue go….many of my well thought out and “factual” comments have been thrown by the wayside by moderators who seem to “fear” the TRUTH and moderate comments unfairly..either by posting a comment attacking another commenter or not posting a comment based on the observations and experiences of the commenter..in an e-mail to me one of the Cap Con moderators suggested that I “start my own Blog” if I didn’t like “HIS”??..correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t those Blogs posted by TU employees the property & opinion of the Albany Times Union itself???

..I ‘ve struggled with the wishy washy efforts by the moderators for 5 years to allow and not delete some of my comments that appently lean too much towards the TRUTH..NYS government will remain stagnent if we the people don’t have a fair and non-biased soapbox to stand on ….n another note..why no women moderators anymore on the Cap Con Blog???

Razz, our blog moderators do as good a job as possible to keep comments on point and not nasty. My experience suggests that if they have refused to post something you have written, they surely had good reason. Anyway, the comments roll on and I wouldn’t get too fixated on any one post. As to why no women moderating the CapCon blog, it’s simply because the women who used to administer the blog (Liz Benjamin and Irene Jay Liu) moved on to other jobs — Liz in TV here, and Irene in newspapering in Hong Kong. /rex

Mr. Smith..I think a woman’s views & opinions would definitely be an asset to the Cap Con Blog..I thought Irene was great…and fair….hopefully you will at the least consider that possibility?..thank you kindly for your response to my post…Razz